Good morning all - I have about 15 minutes to jot down my thoughts about the Tour.

Danny, Tad and their wives are catching their flights in Seattle. Tuffy, Lynda, me and my wife are all traveling back at different times today. So, we hope all of us and guitars in tow will travel and arrive safely at our destination points.

I'm thankful for the Genius of creation: trees, metals, humans who are able to turn these resources into fine acoustic guitars.

I frankly was not keeping my hopes up and did not expect much in terms of what the sound of the FG III will sound like (no offense to anyone, just my way of coping during the "waiting period.")

I am quite pleased with the sound both of the rosewood/IS and hog/IS. Only because I now have 2 rosewood Larris, looking back, I would have ordered a hog.

I have yet to do an a/b of my OM and FG III - but if I remember how it all sounds (this is subjective of course) - I give the edge to my preference of the smidge smaller size of the FG III and yet it has a great voice.

This should sum up what I really think of the sound - whether I'll be able to do this or not is another thing. Here goes:

I feel like going back to the Factory, talk to John L Jr., look up Mike's VancouverSouthpaw's original serial number which became a righty all-hog and locate the IS/hog that I liked and put a deposit on both guitars.

That way, I would have not 1, not 2 but 3 FG IIIs in all wood combinations. Of course the other two would only be an ordinary LS-03 MT, IS/hog.

If there were any interested persons in my OO-09 or Taylor GS Koa or OM-40 - that would be great - as I may need to finance the above fantasy of owning all the wood combos of the FG III - to turn it into reality. (Since my FG III is so new, this will have to be tested in the coming months. I realize these comments are coming from Mr. Understated GAS-er, who is just recently curious about Collings and inquiring about Martins - all OMs. So I'm sure you're reading this tongue-in-cheek.)

...sometime towards the middle/end of April, sort of an end of tax season celebration. Exactly when though, I am left wondering as well.

I know. The childish greeneyed part of me feels slightly jealous that I could be wating another 6 weeks or more for mine while others have theirs already. However, I am thrilled that folks got to take theirs home, and that they have said good things about them thus far. Only makes the wait more exciting.

Hi Guys. I put some photos of the day up on my facebook page. It was a blast to meet everyone. I gotta say I am a very hard person to impress with a guitar. Occupational hazard I fear. I love my new LS03HB Forum III. I was expecting a very nice guitar but was very happy with the comfort and deep base on this guitar. The hight end was bright with lots of overtones but with the clarity we expect from a Larrivee L. The build quality was impeccable! The base thumped my chest when I put it is double drop d. All in all a guitar I look froward to playing a lot. A big thanks to Larrivee and to John Jr and his staff for doing such a great job on the guitars and putting up with us for the day. Like most of you I must now wait for Larrivee to ship my guitar!Jim Holler

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Jim Holler, Luthier" What we do in this life will resound throughout eternity"

Jim & Ben- thanks for the cool pics. I saw Jim's @ about 2am EST, so I got a jump on some (except you West Coasters). Hope all had a great time . Can't wait for more stuff to post & finally, my git. Also, thanks to whoever resolved my p.g. problem. Jeff

I took way too many photos to post 4 at a time or to fill up the thread, so I made a web site of my photos. Bluesman, I think it was your gutiar, along with BenF's that I took a ton of photos of.

Enjoy my photos, I can hardly wait to see the rest. Can someone post a link to Jim's photos, as I do not have my facebook account set up yet?

My oh my...what a day we had yesterday. The feeling I had when I was able to touch and hear my guitar in the factory it was made in, surrounded by other people with the same feelings was just so special. Then to go and Jam with the same guitars that were still being created hours earlier...that was just a perfect end of a perfect day.

I took way too many photos to post 4 at a time or to fill up the thread, so I made a web site of my photos. Bluesman, I think it was your gutiar, along with BenF's that I took a ton of photos of.

Enjoy my photos, I can hardly wait to see the rest. Can someone post a link to Jim's photos, as I do not have my facebook account set up yet?

My oh my...what a day we had yesterday. The feeling I had when I was able to touch and hear my guitar in the factory it was made in, surrounded by other people with the same feelings was just so special. Then to go and Jam with the same guitars that were still being created hours earlier...that was just a perfect end of a perfect day.

Those pictures are simply awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You really managed to capture the thrill of the day. Thanks so much!!! I can't believe how awesome those guitars look and how happy everyone is in the picts. It must have been a very memorable moment.

Ok folks I'm home (for all of 25 minutes now) and thought I would post a few of my impressions. I apologize for not posting before now as I could not get on my hotel's WiFi for two days and didn't find the time to get back to a Starbucks. Sigh.

First off, getting the opportunity to meet my fellow forumites and some of your wives was just amazing. Of course, meeting Ricky in person after Skyping for quite awhile was SO great. Thank you everyone for all the kindness shown to me, particularly to Dermot, Mike and Ricky for chaufering me around town and to Danny for your pep talk last night.

Please know that I had all of you who wanted to make the trip but couldn't, along with me in my heart, particularly Ben and Norman and did my best to get photos of your guitars which I managed to. I will download the camera later and send on my photos to both of you.

I am thrilled to have my Forum III here with me (yes Dermot, it looks like it survived although I haven't opened the case yet, and they wouldn't let me take it on board). However, that being said, I am sad that not everyone has theres yet.

When I picked up mine out of the rack yesterday morning, I was totally at a loss for words and that doesn't happen often. She is beautiful and really great to listen to.

To the guys at the jam last night, I had a great time listening to all of you, but I don't know much at all at this point and, quite frankly, it's embarassing for me to play for anybody other than my dog and bird.

Thanks to everyone from Larrivee for an amazing experience that I will never forget.

Also know that Ricky, myself and Lynn were talking about a Forum III reunion in Vancouver in the future and hopefully other Forum III owners could join all of us. Just throwing that out there...

Matt - great pics - I'll go through all ours, but I think you captured it all wonderfully -

To everyone I met in Vancouver - I could not have had a better time even if I weren't getting one of these. And believe me, having held and quickly strummed mine, and playing a few others, I cannot be more anxious about them all getting sent out ( I didn't take any home with me ). They are wonderful. And the forumites were all great as well - I would really like to organize a git-together in the SF Bay Area sometime for everyone.

I have to make a very public and deeply appreciative THANKS!!! to dermot - he went out of his way to give my wife and I a taste of Vancouver that I will not forget, and leaves me anxious to return someday and spend alot more time there - maybe even some of it not in guitar shops!

Tad

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Bunch of Larrivees - all good - and a wife that still puts up with me, which is the best -

Lynda- glad to put a name with a face. You must be thrilled that your baby is home with you; you looked shell-shocked in a couple of the pics. Yours looked amomg the finest & I hope it will sound just as good. One less thing for you to worry about now! Yea!!!Enjoy. Jeff

Welcome home. Wow that was fun yesterday. I kinda wished I had brought mine home, but now I get to wait with the others.

Lynda, Your bird and dog will love every performance you do with your guitar.

DaveG and I were talking about our first "forum" Jam just one year ago, and how we both were so nervous about playing.

Keep up the good work with with your new guitar. I started playing 4 years ago, and found out the church worship band asked me to play because I owned a nice guitar. They told me that after 6 months later they finally decided I had learned enough they could actually turn up my guitar into the mix.

Find a song or two that speaks to your heart and you an your guitar will go far! After all, Tuffy showed us we can sing a song with just 2 chords, Actually two songs (a horse with no name and tuffy's song)

Good morning all - I have about 15 minutes to jot down my thoughts about the Tour.

This should sum up what I really think of the sound - whether I'll be able to do this or not is another thing. Here goes:

I feel like going back to the Factory, talk to John L Jr., look up Mike's VancouverSouthpaw's original serial number which became a righty all-hog and locate the IS/hog that I liked and put a deposit on both guitars.

That way, I would have not 1, not 2 but 3 FG IIIs in all wood combinations. Of course the other two would only be an ordinary LS-03 MT, IS/hog.

If there were any interested persons in my OO-09 or Taylor GS Koa or OM-40 - that would be great - as I may need to finance the above fantasy of owning all the wood combos of the FG III - to turn it into reality. (Since my FG III is so new, this will have to be tested in the coming months. I realize these comments are coming from Mr. Understated GAS-er, who is just recently curious about Collings and inquiring about Martins - all OMs. So I'm sure you're reading this tongue-in-cheek.)

I'm ecstatic!

ricky

Ricky,

You're killing me man. I love it, a Forum III is all three wood combinations!!!! Listen man, you're a verified GAS aholic and I only wish I'd been able to share your excitement on the trip. Sounds like these Forum III's are going to be very sweet guitars, and I can't wait for my daughters IS/RW and my all Hog to arrive.

Thanks to the rest of the gang for posting some great shots and commentary about the trip. I really wish I could have been there!!